Has the Holy Spirit left you?

"Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me?"    

                                                                   Psalm 51:10-11 NKJV 

The answer to our question above, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ and have been filled with His Spirit then no, He hasn't left you; never has, never will. You may ask, 'Well then, why does David ask the Lord not to take the Holy Spirit away from him? The answer to this, is that Old Testament believers were not in-dwelt with the Spirit. The Spirit came upon them but not within them. This was the case with all OT believers until The New Testament, where at Pentecost Jesus sent the Holy Spirit with fire and they were all filled with God's Spirit. Since then, all believers have the Spirit reigning within them.

This was why David was concerned that God would take the Holy Spirit from him. Don't forget, David had committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband placed on the front line of his army where he faced certain death. Blood was on David's hands and the sin felt so heavy upon him. He was also aware that the Spirit had left Saul and he was now a nobody (1 Samuel 16:14). Therefore, David could do nothing except plead with God to forgive him and show him mercy. And God did this.

So, the Holy Spirit will never leave us. However, sometimes it feels like He has. I'm sure that you've felt like this occasionally. It feels like God has packed up His things and left. Relax, He hasn't. Why does this happen to us? Well, let's look back to David. He had unforgiven sin; he was guilty of this. He had burned with lust when he saw Bathsheba sunbathing on her roof. Because of his powerful position, he was able to summon her to his courts and adultery was committed, leaving her pregnant. He had schemed, having her husband killed on the battle fields. He was covered in sin. (2 Samuel 11 + 12)

Now for us, when we have sinned, because the Holy Spirit dwells within us, He convicts us until we have repented and put things right with God. When we don't, we are carrying that sin around with us and, it becomes a heavy weight. The Holy Spirit is with us but, we can't feel Him because the sin separates us from Him. He hasn't left - it's like we have and things will not change until we ask God to forgive us. 

 

It is the same when we have upset our spouse or someone else. We need to go to the that person and ask them to forgive us. It won't get better until it we do. RT Kendall mentions in one of his books, that one day he was preparing a sermon for the following Sunday. His wife came into his study for something, interrupting him, and he was quite rude to her. He spent the rest of the day, trying to write his sermon but, nothing came. He was too stubborn to say he was sorry to his wife, therefore, by the evening, he had accomplished nothing. He suddenly heard God tell him to go and apologise, he refused at first but on the third prompting, he went downstairs and apologised and they kissed and made things up. And when he went back to his sermon, he finished it in 15 minutes.

Sin will block the presence of the Holy Spirit so, if you feel that God has left you (which He hasn't) go and put things right with whoever you need to, including God, and then move on in the Power of the Holy Spirit.

If you don't know Jesus or, have fallen away, why not say this prayer right now:

Lord Jesus, I have sinned   

I ask you to forgive me and be my Lord and Saviour. Please come into my heart, fill me with Your Spirit and give me a brand new start today.

In Jesus' Name. Amen'

Copyright 2024 Grahame Howard.                                

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com  

If you would like to contact me, grahame.howard@hotmail.co.uk

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